Objective: Examine gender differences in physical activity in different stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: Physical activity has been linked to slower progression and improvement in motor and non-motor symptoms in patients with PD. However, people with PD are less active than healthy individuals, even early in the disease.^1,2 There have been suggestions that men and women differ in exercise patterns in those without PD, but this has not been fully explored in PD.

Method: Data used in this study came from the Fox Insight Study. We examined self-reported activity scores using the PASE (Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly) in participants with and without Parkinson’s disease (PD). The primary outcomes were gender differences in total PASE score and subscores. We also calculated the proportion of women and men with and without PD who met American Heart Association (AHA) recommendations for exercise in adults, as well as the new PD exercise recommendations from the Parkinson Foundation.

Results: A total of 13,035 women and 16,117 men with a self-reported diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and 8,522 women and 2,798 men without Parkinson’s disease completed the PASE at baseline. Controls had higher PASE scores for all age categories and gender except for men younger than 65 years in which PD participants had a higher PASE (134.9 [PD] vs 130.1 [control], p=0.02). For those with PD, men had a significantly higher PASE score compared to women (123.4 vs 112.9, p<0.001) overall and within each age category. Men also scored higher on the Recreational subscore (47.3 vs 40.4, p<0.001) and the Household subscore (76.1 vs 72.5, p<0.001) compared to women. As age increased, the PASE score decreased for all groups with women over age 70 years having the lowest PASE score (99.6, p<0.001). In linear regression for PD participants, higher PASE was associated with younger age, shorter disease duration and male gender. Similarly, meeting AHA and new PD exercise recommendations were associated with younger age, shorter disease duration and male gender.

Conclusion: Women with Parkinson’s disease demonstrated lower levels of physical activity compared to men in all age ranges and disease duration categories and were less likely to meet exercise recommendations. Interventions should be tailored to women’s specific needs to encourage physical activity.

References: 1 Nimwegen M Van, Speelman AD, Hofman-Van Rossum EJM, Overeem S, Deeg DJH, Borm GF, et al. Physical inactivity in Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol 2011;258:2214. https://doi.org/10.1007/S00415-011-6097-7.
2 Mantri S, Fullard ME, Duda JE, Morley JF. Physical activity in early Parkinson disease. J Parkinsons Dis 2018;8:107–11. https://doi.org/10.3233/JPD-171218.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/gender-differences-in-physical-activity-in-parkinsons-disease/